The Research of the Latent Growth Model (LGM) to Investigate the Growth Change of Comprehensive Development Index of Digital Economy

The aim of this study is to investigate the changes in the growth of the digital economy index across 80 prefecture-level cities in the top 5 provincial-level administrative regions in China’s GDP ranking from 2020 to 2022. To achieve this, the study employs the latent growth model (LGM) for data analysis to comprehend the changes in the digital economy index of the top 5 provincial-level administrative regions in China’s economic growth following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s findings reveal that: (1) The average digital economy comprehensive development index from 2020 to 2022 is 0.041 in the explanatory model parameter part. The average growth of the digital economy comprehensive development index from 2020 to 2022 is 0.001 in the slope part. The rate of increase within this group was only one percent per year from 2020 to 2022, but both parameters exceeded significant thresholds. (2) There are significant differences in the digital economy comprehensive development index among different provinces and cities. Based on the research results, this study proposes relevant discussions and suggestions.